Convoluted
by vapiddreamscape
Summary: He still loved him. And that is what made it all so sad. A series of one-shots focusing around the convoluted Baelfire and Rumpelstilskin, the first based off a quote in the episode "The Return". Formerly titled "So Sad."
1. So Sad

_David: "But I love you."_

_Mary Margaret: "And that is what makes it all so sad."_

_Once Upon a Time, "The Return"_

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Bae knew that his father had become a monster. He was an old apple, rotten to his core. Dark magic had transformed him into someone unrecognizable. Bae no longer had a father. He had lost him the moment his father had become the Dark One. And because of this metamorphosis, Bae hated his father. No, he didn't hate his father. He hated the man his father had become.

Bae was still a young boy. He just wanted his father back. He was willing to do anything he had to do. He would go to the ends of the world to return his father to him. But he was still young. He was naïve. He still believed in the good in people. He did not know that evil was harder to best then good. So Bae made the deal with his father, thinking that if he succeeded, his father would be returned to him.

When the Blue Fairy gave him the bean, he felt as though his heart would leap from his chest. His father would be saved! They would go to a better world, one without magic, and things would be better again.

Bae knew his father was skeptical of the plan, but he had promised. He had made a deal. His father never broke a deal.

The walk through the woods was a quiet affair. When they reached the clearing, Bae was ready. The stone hit the ground and a green vortex erupted from the spot. Bae was ready. But his father was not.

He didn't seem to understand that this was the _only _way that they could be together. It was not a trick. It was their salvation and his father wouldn't listen to him. He didn't hear him when he told him it would be okay, when Bae told him that he had to do it. His father drove the dagger in the soil and said, "I can't". Bae finally realized. His father was too scared. He was scared of losing his power and living without it. But worse, it seemed to Bae that his father cared about magic more than his own son.

"You coward! You promised! You broke our deal!"

The next thing he remembered was falling. He landed somewhere strange, a place he had never been before. There were strange people all around, wearing strange garments. The air around him held no magic and he knew that the bean had worked. He looked all around but his father was nowhere to be found. This proved to Bae what he already knew. His father had broken their deal.

Anger flared inside of him. His father had been a coward. He was scared of living without the dark magic he had acquired. He cared more about magic than he did his own _son_! His father had broken their deal! Of all the deals his father could have broken, he chose this one. Bae's father had let him go, let him fall all alone into a strange, magicless universe where anything could happen.

Bae was surrounded by the strange people and they were asking him so many questions. What was he supposed to do?

He let the people lead him away, take him to other who were supposed to "help" him but they couldn't do what he really needed. They couldn't send him back to his world. They couldn't bring his father back to him. Instead, they put him with strangers who were supposed to compensate for a family.

Bae wished he could hate his father for what he had done. That would have been so much easier. But he still loved him. And that is what made it all so sad.

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_Author's Note: This is my first attempt at Once Upon a Time fanfiction. In fact, this is the first non-poetry piece I have written, so reviews would be greatly appreciated._


	2. Apples Don't Fall Far

_I have decided to turn this into a series of one-shots, to be updated whenever the inspiration strikes me. Most will focus on the relationship between Bae and Rumpelstilskin, as well as exploring their characters further. This one-shot contains spoilers for _Tallahassee _and _Broken.

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_Apples Don't Fall Far_

Baelfire never thought he'd ever understand his father. They were different people, different as night and day. Papa was night, soul consumed by the darkness magic brings. Baelfire was different. He was good. Or, so he thought.

This strange new world was so much different from the one he departed. Everything was so much louder, brighter, harsher. People rushed from one place to the next, not caring who they knocked down on their way. Buildings scraped the sky, attempting to claw their way to heaven. He didn't know a world could be so cold, but here he was, in a frozen concrete jungle he could never leave.

At first, Baelfire was shuttled from one foster home to the next, his passing leaving no mark on those he left behind. Some were better than others, but in the end, they pretty much fell into two categories. First, there were the people he didn't care about not caring about him until it was time for him to move on. On the other hand, you had people who cared too much. They were the ones who tried to save him, fix him. In a way, this was worse than apathy. Baelfire didn't want salvation. His brokenness was a reminder of all he had given up in order to reach this place. Also, it hurt more when they gave up on him. After two years, it was his turn to give up on them. Running away from the system, he never looked back.  
On the big bad streets of New York City, he learned things from other children like him. He learned how to survive on his own. At first, his crimes were small. A few dollars from a pocket, some food from a grocery store, anything to get by. But once he started, he couldn't stop. With each new crime, he got this rush, adrenaline running like a sugar high through his veins. Baelfire imagined this is what the addicts he knew felt when they smoked, snorted, or shot up their drug of choice in back alleys; a high you'd never fall from, but always did. This is what his father felt when he used his magic. Baelfire knew this; he hated himself for it. But, just like an addict, he couldn't stop. In a way, he was just as bad as those druggies and his father, only his drug of choice wasn't pot, pills, heroin, or magic.

As Baelfire soon discovered, he had a natural affinity for crime. A master of sleight of hand, wallets disappeared before their owners even realized he had passed them by. Objects disappeared from store shelves. Pick locks and hot wiring cars were easy as breathing.

After each petty theft, he felts his goodness erode further. Chip by chip, he was turning into his father. A kind of urban Dark One. Truth is, after a while, Baelfire stopped caring. He came to believe it was his destiny. No matter how hard he tried, he would succumb to the evil that hibernated inside of him. It didn't matter how far he ran. You can't beat destiny and the apple never falls far from the tree. These facts of life were ones he accepted. Then, he met her.

Perhaps it was destiny. Karma. Some grand plan put in place by an omnipotent god. It didn't matter. Something caused Emma Swan to steal his already stolen car that day.

The minute he saw her, he knew he was done for. Electricity sparked inside him, giving him more of a rush in a single instant than all of his stealing and lying. Baelfire realized at that this girl would be the best thing to ever happen to him.

With Emma, he felt happiness unlike anything he has felt in the longest time. She cracked open his heart of stone and, for the first time in this frozen place, he loved. He thought they would live together forever. However, he forgot three vital facts.

His father had driven away anyone who ever loved him.

He was his father's son.

Apples don't fall far from the tree.

They were so close to happily ever after. Then his past came up, tapped him on the shoulder, and laughed in his face. "You thought you could live happily ever after? How could you be so naïve? You seem to have forgotten who you are."

He should have known his past would catch up with him. There was just too much of it. His life of magic. His life of crime. Eventually, both came to bite him in the ass, ruining the life he so carefully constructed in moments.

He really thought the plan would work. It almost did. But then his life of magic came back and he had no time to salvage anything.

_I know you're Baelfire. _

The words seared into his retinas, into his soul. No one knew that. That was another life. He was Neal Cassidy, a different man with a different life. This one might have its traumas, but it was better than the one he left behind. He wanted to keep this. He had love, warmth, a place- well, a person really- to call home. For once in his life, he was happy. Goddammit, why could the world give him one lasting chance for happiness, instead of yanking the rug from beneath his feet, leaving him sprawling on the floor?

No matter how much he wanted to stay, he knew he had to leave. Emma had a destiny, one that no longer included. It shattered him, leaving her, but he knew it was what had to do. If Emma was destined to be the savior, he was destined to let her fulfill her task. He made August promise to let him know when Emma had paid her dues, because he loved her and wanted with all the pieces of his shattered heart to go back to her.

Ten painful years passed. Slowly but surely, Bae got back on his feet. It was slow going, agonizing, but he put himself back together. He gave his heart away again, because third time is supposed to be the charm. And then he got what he was waiting for.

_Broken_. That one word managed to completely break apart the fragile balance he has created. Emma had fulfilled her destiny. He could go back. But he knew from the moment he received that postcard that he would not. Emma was his life no longer. He broke her heart as well as his the day he walked away. He couldn't do that to her again. More selfishly, he knew he couldn't do that to himself again.

Bae never thought he would understand his father. Perhaps they were once different people, but the line between them blurred beyond recognition.

Both were selfish, arrogant bastards who cared for nothing but their own heart. Both had left someone they loved without warning, apparently for "their own good." Both got what they wanted, never minding the consequences for themselves and others. Both had given their hearts again and again with nothing to show for it but scars. No matter how many times they built themselves up, the world knocked them down. And both were cowards, fearful of another broken heart.

Bae never thought he would understand his father, let alone become. But apples don't fall far from the tree, and he was Rumpelstilskin's son, through and through.

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_Reviews are appreciated and suggestions for future one-shots about these two characters are welcome._


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